Brake-operating connection



V. BENDIX 4 BRAKE OPERATING CONNECTION Original Filed April 16. 1928 Aug.'23, 1932.

0 O O O E a? fig- 6 3/ ATTORNEY mm gm kxh Patented Aug. 23, 1932 UNITED STATES VINCENT BENDIX or CHICAGO, rumors, ASSIGNOR T0 'BENDIX uncanny; a,;

SOUTH BEND, INDIANA, A CORPORATION 01' ILLINOIS BRAKE-OPERATING CONNECTION Original application filed April 16, 1928, Serial No. 270,184, IlJividedv and, this application intranets 28, 1929. Serial No. 343,318.

This invention relates to brakes and is illustrated as embodied in novel operating mechanism for a set of four-wheel brakes for an automobile.

The safety of a car'is increased rather than decreased by the use of the regular fourwheel brake system for emergency purposes as well as for service, instead of providing additional emergency brakes. however, to construct the operating connections so that no failure of the connections short of a complete wreck will leave the car entirely without brakes and a single heavy cross shaft, rigidly mounted in the chassis frame and connected to all four brakes, is very effective in accomplishing the result desired. To such a shaft both hand or emergency lever and the foot or service pedal may be connected and alternatively operated. Thus all four brakes may be operated by either the emergency or service pedal.

While such a shaft is so safe and solid that the breakage of one in ordinary service has not been known to occur in all the many millions of cars heretofore built, it is my aim to eliminate the last remote chance of complete failure of the braking system by arranging for supporting and operating this shaft in such a manner that even if it should be broken the car will still have at least two I serve as a third bearing at least in case the shaft is broken, and which is arranged be tween the two shaft-operating connections,

that is ordinarily between the connections from the pedal and the hand lever. Thus even if the shaft is broken, one end or theother of it can still be operated to apply the a corresponding brakes.

The third safety or emergency bearing is preferably in the form of a bracket attached to the chassis and may be provided with a circular opening therein of greater diameter than the shaft which is passed therethrough. The bracket therefore normally does not function asbearing or support, being brought into play only upon breakage It is desirable,

of oneor both of the remaining bearings or breakage of the shaft ateither sideof'saidsafety bearing.

Other details able particular features and combinations of parts 'will be apparent-from the following of construction and desii description of the illustrative embodiment shown in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 1s a diagrammatic perspective of an autoinobileichassis embodyingfmy novel invention; I

Figure 2 is a section through {the chassis of Figure la'headof the shaft andlo'oki'ng toward the rear of the car',and 'showing the shaft in front elevation; and

Figure 3 is a'section on the line 3-'3 of Figure 2showing thelow'er pa'rt'ofthe emergency bearing in side elevation,

' The enibodimentof my invention selected for illustration is Showndin Figure 1, combined with the usual chassis frame, ordinarily having one or more cross members 10 connecting the opposite sidefj'inembers l2, and.

Which chassis is supported by the iusual springs (not shown) on front and rear axles (not shown) which in turn are carried by road wheels (not shown'yh'avingfrontbrakes I4; 'andrear brakes 16. The brakesiin'ay be operatedby tensiont'rods' ofab'les 18 con. nected to form operating arms orlevers 20 on a single heavy transverse-cross:shaft;

The shaft may be "operated by 'ei'thei' of two operating devices, shown a'saservicepedal 24 and an emergency hand lever 26; theffor- Iner connected an arm on 'thebshaift by a link 30 and the latterc'onnectedto'an arm 32 on'the shaft by a link 34. a

The present invention hasto do with thes upporting and arrangement of shaft22or its equivalent. @In each instance itjis'irigidly mounted in the frameypreferably by'm'eans of two bearings 38 in 'whlch 1t 1s journaled' adjacent its ends, and which are permanently bolted to the side frame members 12. It also has in each instance a third deviceadapted to serve as a hearing at least in case the shaft breaks, and which is arranged between the pedal and hand lever connections.

In Figures 2 and 3 the third or einer-" ICC gen'cy bearing is indicated in more detail and preferably comprises a right angled bracket member 36 rigidly secured to the cross member 10. That portion of the bracket extending normal to the shaft may be provided with an opening of larger cross section than the shaft which is assed t-herethrough, all as clearly disclosed 1n Figure 3.

The end bearings 38 thus serve to normally support the brake shaft, the central bearing coming into play upon failure of either or both of the said end hearings or upon failure of the shaft at either side of the central bearing. The central bearing in the disclosed structure thus serves as an emergency or safety bearing insuring that at least one set of two brakes will be at all times operative in spite of breakage of the shaft at either side of the safety hearing.

I prefer to mount the central bearing immediately beside arm 28, connected to pedal 24, so that the bearing takes any bending strain on-the shaft from the pedal, and per- 1 mits a lighter shaft to be used. The.safety bearing, as noted above, must be between the pedal and hand lever connections, to co-operate with one or the other of the bearings 38 in case the shaft should break.

While but one embodiment of my invention has been described in detail, it is not my intention to limit the scope of the invention to that particular embodiment, or otherwise than by the terms of the appended claims.

This case constitutes a division of m c0- pending application No. 27 0,184, filed Xpril 16, 1928 (Patent No. 1,713,687, granted May 21,1929).

I claim:

1. A vehicle having, in combination with a frame and a set of brakes, a. shaft operating the brakes, two bearings for the shaft supported by the frame ad acent the opposite ends'of the shaft, two operating devices having connections to the shaft,'and a device adapted to serve as a third bearing for the shaft and which is supported by the frame between the two connections to the shaft from the two operating devices, said device having a portion encircling but normally spaced from the shaft.

2. A vehicle having, in combination with a frame and a set of brakes, a shaft operating the brakes, two bearings for the shaft supported bythe frame adjacent the opposite ends of the shaft, and a device adapted to serve as a' third bearing for the shaft and which is supported by the frame, said device having a portion encircling but normally spaced from the shaft.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed my name.

VINCENT BENDIX. 

